Two Years Experience With A Broadband Cable Network In An 1100-Bed Hospital
Patrick T. Cahill, Robert H. McCarthy, R Durrant James, R. Knowles · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1985
Early in 1983, a three-cable broadband network was installed in The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center using well-established cable-TV technology. This network was configured in a vertical tree topology. Currently, it extends over thirteen floors vertically and over two city blocks horizontally. It has now survived several major renovations on the various floors of the hospital. This survivability is a result of the siting of the main tree and of the isolation gained for the branches through the strategic placement of amplifiers. This communications system was designed in a modular fashion for later expansion and so that seven types of functions could be supported on the network without the addition of a new functional level disrupting the functions already existing on the system. Thus far, two functions (real-time image consultation and computer sharing) have been implemented, and two other functions (analog image storage and data base management) are in the prototype stage. Perhaps the most significant feature of our experience thus far has been the ease and utility of analog transmission and storage of images. This experience has lead us to postpone and even de-emphasize digital transmission and storage in our future plans.